A man has been arrested and a van seized in connection with a series of hit and run incidents that saw 12 people, including children, hurt in Cardiff.

Witnesses reported that the driver of a van mounted pavements and drove straight into parents walking their children home from school. The series of collisions began when the driver reportedly hit a pedestrian near an Asda store in the Leckwith area of Cardiff before driving off and causing more collisions through the Canton and Ely suburbs, before the van was stopped by police.

A family of three were hit by the van, and the mother and two-year-old daughter taken to hospital. Adam and Annie Lewis were pushing their daughter, Amelia-May, in her pram when they were hit by the van. Mother and daughter are now in hospital, although their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

Adam Lewis's grandmother, Maureen Lewis, said: "One of my grandson's friends then came running up the road with Amelia's pram which was badly damaged. I was so shocked - she had cuts to her face but she will be fine."

Business owner Phil Jones, who saw one of the collisions outside his shop, said the driver "seemed to be trying to hit as many people as possible."

Jones said: "Right outside my shop the van aimed straight at a mother and two children walking on the pavement and mowed them down. He then drove straight across four lanes of the road and smashed into a man and woman with their baby in a pushchair.

"He just smashed into them before screaming round on the road and heading away. In about 100 yards he veered off the road and hit another two boys and a mother and a boy on a bike."

People living in the areas affected described chaotic scenes as they and police rushed to help the victims until the ambulances arrived.

Lynda Paterson, 34, got caught up in the confusion on her way to pick her children up from school.

She said: "I could see there were police and someone was lying on the floor, on the pavement. I could see police running back and forth along the road and I now know there was a child who had been hit."

The injured people were taken to the University Hospital of Wales, whose A&E department was closed to anyone not involved in the incident. There was no further information on the condition of those struck by the van.

Police have urged drivers to avoid the areas of Crossways Road, Cowbridge Road West, Grand Avenue, and Sloper Road, where officers are in attendance.